A sense of deja vu for recent Wayne State law graduate

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Flint-Genesee County Legal News

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By Tom KirvanLegal News

Nathan Fink, fresh from passing the bar exam last fall, has returned to his father’s legal roots.

A 2011 graduate of Wayne State University Law School, the younger Fink recently joined the Southfield firm of Zausmer, Kaufman, August, Caldwell & Taylor, which traces its beginning to 1978 when State Senator Daniel Cooper and City of Detroit Assistant Corporation Counsel David Fink joined forces to form Cooper & Fink.

Nathan, who earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 2008, is practicing civil litigation with the Zausmer firm, whose managing partner, Mark Zausmer, began his legal career as a law clerk and then an associate with Cooper & Fink.

While Nathan is less than six months into his legal career, his father David is now beginning his second year at the helm of Fink + Associates, a Bloomfield Hills firm that he started in January 2011. The firm focuses on complex commercial and class action litigation. Fink had a similar focus in 1978 when he founded his first firm with Cooper. The firm, over the course of two decades, grew to include 20 attorneys and served as a launch paid for Fink’s run for U.S. Congress in 2002.

While his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg proved unsuccessful, Fink subsequently accepted an appointment to Governor Jennifer Granholm’s cabinet as the State Employer. The job as the Governor’s chief labor negotiator involved a three-year commitment in which Fink spearheaded negotiated reductions in employee wage and benefit costs.

As would be expected, the elder Fink was a proud father when his son was sworn in as a member of the State Bar of Michigan last October. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith, a former Oakland County Circuit Court judge, administered the oath at Fink’s swearing in ceremony, setting in motion a second generation legal career that figures to hold as much promise and success as the first.